Eos Chasma Mensa (Released 14 March 2005)

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

About this image

One of the topics for the Image of the Day was mountains and chaos on Mars. This image is located in Eos Chasma. On the left side of the image is a feature type called a Mensa, from the Latin word for 'table'. A Mensa is a flat-topped prominence with cliff-like edges. The other isolated hills and mesas are more typical of chaotic terrain - where collapse occurs after some sort of subsurface support material is removed.